This page shows pictures from the 1955 film “The
Ladykillers”, with comparable modern-day pictures. Each of the pictures on this
page is a link to a larger version of the picture (size: 100–150 KB).

I was inspired to produce this then-and-now photo-record after
going on a guided walk of the area which was organised by the Sir Nigel Gresley
Preservation Trust in August 1999. It also serves as a record of the area before
it was changed considerably as a result of the construction of the Channel Tunnel
Rail Link (CTRL).

See also Reel Streets,
a site by John and Brian Tunstill which identifies locations used in British films
from the 1920s to the 1980s. The locations for The Ladykillers are described
here.

This is a large-scale map of the area close to King’s Cross
Station. Cheney Road (formerly Cheney Street), where the robbery took place,
is immediately west of the station. Argyle Street, used for the view from
Mrs Wilberforce’s front door, is south-east of St Pancras Station. It shows
the road layout from the 1980s, before the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL)
work on St Pancras Station changed the area.

See also
street map (Streetmap) and the
top-down and bird’s eye (oblique)
aerial photographs (Bing) of King’s Cross and St Pancras Stations. In the
photographs, the large semi-circular building on the west side of the station
is a new entrance hall which occupies the site of Cheney Road.

This is a smaller scale map of the area between King’s Cross
and the southern end of Copenhagen Tunnel. Mrs Wilberforce’s house was a
set that was specially built for the film, above the tunnel mouth at the
western end of Frederica Street, off Caledonian Road. Although a small part
of the eastern end of Frederica Street still exists, the area has changed
out of all recognition and is now occupied by two housing estates dating
from the 1960s and 1990s.

See also
street map (Streetmap) and the
top-down and bird’s eye (oblique)
aerial photographs (Bing) of the area around the southern mouth of Copenhagen
Tunnel. The long grey roof just south of the North London Line is the place
where the CTRL emerges from its tunnel under north London and runs above
ground from here south-west to St Pancras station.

On a zoomed-in oblique photo of the tunnel mouth, I've marked
the position of the wall which is roughly where the front of Mrs Wilberforce’s
house was.

It shows the York Road (southbound) and Hotel Curve (northbound)
platforms on the link between the ECML and the Widened Lines (Thameslink).
These links closed in 1976 when the Drayton Park – Moorgate line was handed
over to British Rail, providing a more direct route between Finsbury Park
and Moorgate.

At one time, Battle Bridge Road extended on a viaduct across
the tracks to link up with York Road, though this bridge had already been
removed by 1938, long before “The Ladykillers” was filmed.

Here’s a sketch of the area to the north of King’s Cross
station, based on the 1938 Ordnance Survey map that’s shown on page 21 of
“Lost Lines: London”, Nigel Welbourn, Ian Allan Publishing, 1998, ISBN 0-7110-2623-8.
For reasons of clarity, I’ve shown multiple tracks as a single ticked line;
the many sidings which diverge from the main line and pass under York Road
are only diagrammatic. Maiden Lane station (which still existed in 1938)
on the NLL was immediately west of York Way, before the spur from the ECML
joined the NLL.

The coal siding still existed in 1966 when this 6"-to-the-mile
(1:10560) Ordnance Survey map was made. Thanks to
Donald Galt
who scanned his copy of the map. I’ve marked in red the approximate position
of Mrs Wilberforce’s house just beyond the wall at the end of Frederica
Street.

The picture from the film shows very clearly the cutting
just south of Copenhagen Tunnel, with the siding climbing the far side of
the cutting. The bridge carrying the North London Line is visible in the
top left corner. It is just possible to see the continuation of the siding
where it passes immediately behind Mrs Wilberforce’s house.

It is not possible to get onto the tunnel mouth to take
a comparable picture. The only access is from a road at the end of Vale
Royal, off York Way (formerly York Road); this road follows the line of
the siding that is on the far side of the cutting in the 1955 picture. Notice
the ramshackle huts above the left tunnel and the new houses to the right
of the picture. Mrs Wilberforce’s house was where the blue/grey lean-to
shed is above the centre tunnel. The track through the right-hand tunnel,
which was in use in 1955, has now been lifted.

The second picture is taken from a North London Line train
as it crosses the bridge. With hindsight, I should have taken it from a
train going in the other direction so I was on the track closer to the tunnel,
to make the blue railing a bit less conspicuous! You can see the end of
Vale Royal on the left, on the site of the siding, and the flat grassy area
above the tunnel.

In both pictures, the wall at the end of the former Frederica
Street can be seen above the mouth of the right-hand of the three tunnels.
By comparison with the 1966 OS map and the aerial photo from the opening
titles of the film, I believe that Mrs Wilberforce’s house was built where
that wall now stands.

The third picture is a panorama of two that were taken from
Bunning Way on the housing estate at the eastern side of the tunnel mouth,
through a convenient gap in the fence! At the very right, you can just see
the wall where Mrs Wilberforce’s house stood: it’s to the right of the grey
fence. For those that are interested, the panorama was created using PanaVue
Image Assembler. I bet you can’t find the join!

This bridge carries the North London Line across the East
Coast Main Line. Highbury and Islington is to the left; Camden Town is to
the right. Notice the extensive signal gantries – long since removed and
replaced by much uglier overhead-electrification gantries!

The first picture is taken from the site of the siding;
the view is partly obstructed by a sagging chain-link fence in the foreground.
Through the middle span of the bridge, one of the tunnel mouths at the northern
end of Gasworks Tunnel is visible; through the right-hand span, you can
just make out the long viaduct that carries York Way over the sidings that
go to the old Goods Depot and Top Shed.

The second picture is taken from the tunnel mouth, just
to the left of the left-hand octagonal “tower” on top of the tunnel. Apologies
for all the foliage in the foreground: I moved as much away as I could reach!
The lines on the right-hand side go under York Way viaduct, and the branch
on the extreme right curves sharply to link up with the North London Line,
as shown on the maps above.

“Where’s General Gordon?” Major Courtney is on the roof,
looking for Mrs Wilberforce’s parrot. A section of the siding across the
tunnel mouth is visible behind the house. The main line is off the top of
the picture.

Here are three views along Argyle Street looking from Mrs
Wilberforce’s front door towards the tower of St Pancras Station.

Argyle Street was only used for the shots from Mrs
Wilberforce’s front door. The fourth picture shows the building that is
behind the camera in the other pictures, in the place where Mrs Wilberforce’s
house was supposed to be.

St Pancras Station may provide a very photogenic backdrop
in the film but it is stretching the bounds of credibility a bit to have
a house which is clearly on top of a tunnel and yet which is apparently
also south of St Pancras, in an area where there are no railway lines, cuttings
or tunnels!

The security van containing the money turns left from Goods
Way into Battle Bridge Road. A few seconds later, having been boxed-in by
the silver car and the taxi, it turns right from Battle Bridge Road into
Cheney Road.

These two views are easily recognisable. The main change
is the trees that have grown since 1955, obscuring the bridge in the distance
carrying the Midland Main Line over St Pancras Road.

2 September 2002: This area is being redeveloped
as part of the construction of the Channel
Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL). This map is based on one produced by the CTRL
Visitor Centre in Brill Place, north of the British Library. The green and
purple areas (added by me) show, respectively, the existing roads that will
be closed and the new roads that will be built. The additional platforms
of St Pancras, which will be used by domestic services once the original
platforms in the Barlow shed are used by the Eurostar trains, are being
built in the area north of the existing station, in the area bounded by
Midland Road to the west and Cheney Road in the east, on top of the old
alignment of Pancras Road and the western end of Battle Bridge Road.

The house that was on the right-hand side of the first 1955
picture still existed when I took the modern-day picture in July 2000, but
has recently been demolished.

Other recent CTRL changes are the demolition of the Milk
Sidings and the Hotel Curve platform which used to be visible through a
gateway in the high wall on the east side of Cheney Road, to the north-west
of the suburban platforms.

October 2005: This is a map of the new lines north
of King’s Cross and St Pancras, including the CTRL and its connections to
St Pancras and the North London Line (and hence the West Coast Main Line).
The link between the Thameslink line and the East Coast Main Line is also
shown: this will be used for Thameslink 2000.

Notice that the ECML-to-NLL link, labelled “North London
Incline”, now passes over York Way (“124” on the map) whereas the
previous alignment passed under it. This is because York Way road
viaduct has been demolished and the road lowered, now that access to all
the goods sidings is no longer needed. I wonder if there are any other examples
of a road-over-rail bridge which has become rail-over-road?

This is the view from the “elbow” in Cheney Road, looking
south-west towards St Pancras Road.

The building in the middle distance is now a Red Star parcels
depot. The road on the left, into which the taxi was turning in the 1955
picture, is now blocked by a bollards and a number of Portakabin buildings.
The suburban platforms of the station are behind me. In the background is
the Great Northern Hotel and the majestic roof of St Pancras Station.

Mrs Wilberforce emerges from the station, accompanied by
a porter carrying the trunk that contains the money, and gets into the blue
taxi, while Major Courtney gets into a fluster reporting her movements from
the wooden phone booth in the foreground. I bet you’d never find a porter
these days who was willing to carry your luggage – do they still have porters,
even?

As Mrs Wilberforce’s taxi drives away, we see this view
looking east: Pentonville Road is to the left of the round-ended Lighthouse
Building above the police car, and Gray’s Inn Road is to the right. Notice
the roundabout (now replaced by traffic lights) with its “Keep Left” sign
and its black-and-white bollards. I’m not sure what that aerial pylon is
on top of the roundabout.

The station entrance no longer exists in this form. The
front of the building has been extended towards Euston Road and the waiting
area for taxis has been diverted further west.

It was while I was taking this photo that I was accosted
by a prostitute (for which the King’s Cross area is notorious nowadays)
who asked me if I “wanted any business” ;-)

When Major Courtney is getting flustered while reporting
Mrs Wilberforce’s movements, he is speaking to Professor Marcus who is in
a phone box on Vernon Rise, south-east of King’s Cross Station. I didn’t
grab any pictures of this scene – I must remember to do so next time the
film is shown on television. However here are a couple of pictures of the
same location from other times in the film. The main road in the background
is King’s Cross Road.

The area has changed considerably since 1955, but the buildings
on King’s Cross Road are still easily recognisable. The woman in this picture
is standing in roughly the same position as the lamp-post in the second
picture from the film. Thanks to
Eric Butler
who sent me this photo.

The images from the film are taken from a widescreen 15:9 DVD copy
rather than from the 4:3 version shown on television. Many thanks to Skevos Mavros
for sending me these pictures. Note that the DVD copy is still not a perfect copy
of the original film: although it shows slightly more of the width of the frame,
the height is slightly truncated compared with the 4:3 version. I’m not sure why
the picture couldn’t have been zoomed out slightly to include all of the height,
even if this meant slightly bigger left and right margins to fit the standard 16:9
DVD frame. The overall picture quality from the DVD is a vast improvement on my
analogue captures from a VHS off-air copy of the film.

The distinctive silver car that Louis (Herbert Lom) drives is a
1950 Studebaker Champion Coupe built at South Bend Indiana and styled by Raymond
Loewy.

The piece of music that the robbers pretended to practice at Mrs
Wilberforce’s house while planning their robbery was the Minuet from “Quintet in
E major, Opus 11, Number 5” by Luigi Boccherini.